Top WordPress Plugins for the Smart Blogger

May 25 by | 112 comments | Featured, Technology | Tags: , , ,
Web

If you’re a blogger, then you probably know about the power of the WordPress platform. Straight out of the box, WordPress is one of the best solutions for blogging. It has a number of SEO benefits built straight into the software. However, the smart blogger knows how to optimize WordPress for even further performance using plugins. Here is a list of plugins that the A-list bloggers are using.

  • Akismet – If you run a blog, then you need this plugin.Fortunately, it comes preinstalled with WordPress. Popular blogs get hundreds of spam comments every day. Akismet helps eliminate this problem. Don’t waste your time deleting spam comments. Akismet will automate the entire process with ease by running hundreds of tests on your comments, trackbacks, and pingbacks to ensure their validity.
  • Bad Behaviour – This plugin isn’t as well known as the others but it should definetly be on your list. Bad Behaviour denies automated spambots access to your PHP-based Web site. This plugin complements Akismet by preventing spammers from ever delivering their junk in the first place.
  • Digg This – This plugin automatically adds a Digg story link whenever it detects incoming links from Digg.com. This is an excellent way to promote your articles on one of the most popular social bookmarking sites around.
  • Show Top Commentators – If you are looking for a way to increase your comments and the interaction among your readership, this plugin is an excellent choice. Show Top Commentators encourages discussion by rewarding readers for making a comment. The top commentators are displayed in the sidebar with the number of comments they have made and a link back to their website.
  • Related Posts – This plugin will find other blog posts that are related to the current post based on keyword matching. You can then display the related posts at the bottom of each article. This is an excellent way to keep visitors at your site for longer periods of time. Customize this plugin to display as many or as few related posts as you desire.
  • Adsense Deluxe – If you run adsense on your blog, then this is the number one plugin to implement. Adsense Deluxe allows you to automatically insert Google Adsense with ease.
  • WP-Cache – This plugin is an extremely efficient page caching system that will make your site much faster and responsive. This plugin is very useful for handling sudden bursts of traffic coming from social bookmarking sites like Digg and Slashdot. WP-Cache basically creates static versions of your pages so that they can be served to your visitors without querying the MySQL database.
  • Feedburner Feed Replacement – This popular plugin was recently adopted by Feedburner and renamed “FeedSmith” . This plugin forwards all of your feed traffic to Feedburner. FeedSmith often causes an elusive “bump in subscribers” when you first activate it because it will detect all ways to access your feed. Readers coming from http://www.yoursite.com/feed/ or http://www.yoursite.com/wp-rss2.php will both be redirected to your FeedBurner feed so that you can accurately track your subscriber base.
  • Ultimate Tag Warrior – This is the best tag system for WordPress. Ultimate Tag Warrior will help you pick up more traffic from Technorati and adds a number of SEO benefits to your blog.
  • Google Sitemaps – This plugin will automatically create a Google compliant sitemap of your WordPress blog to ensure that all of your pages are indexed in Google. This is one plugin you definitely don’t want to be without.
  • WordPress Dulplicate Content Cure – this plugin will eliminate any worries you might have about duplicate content. The WordPress Duplicate Content Cure prevents search engines from indexing WordPress pages that contain duplicate content. This includes archives and category pages.
  • Popularity Contest – This plugin allows you to show off your most popular posts in the sidebar of your WordPress blogs.
  • SEO Title Tag – Title tags are one of the most important on-page factors for search engine optimization. This plugin allows you to optimize your title tag for optimum traffic.
  • WP-ContactForm – If you’re looking to avoid email spam, then this is the plugin for you. This plugin allows people to contact you without actually emailing you.
  • WordPress Database Backup – Talk about a lifesaver. This plugin comes installed with WordPress, providing an easy way to backup your WordPress database. You can download the backup file or have it emailed to the address of your choice.

If you know of other great WordPress plugins, feel free to share them in the comments.

Kim Roach is a productivity junkie who blogs regularly atThe Optimized Life. Read her articles on 50 EssentialGTD Resources, How to Have a 46 Hour Day, Do You Need
a Braindump, What They Don’t Teach You in School, and Free Yourself From the Inbox.

  • http:///www.andycast.net AndyCast Andy

    Hi Kim,

    Excellent selection of plugins..there are a couple I need to seriously add to all my WP sites.

    One additional one I’d suggest for anyone wanting to add video or MP3′s to their site would be PodPress. (http://www.mightyseek.com/podpress/)

    Targeted primarily for podcaster, the plugin would be useful to any one wanting to add multimedia files to their blog posts.

    Definitely worth consideration.

    Excellent post, I’ve been looking for something like this for awhile.

    Andy Bilodeau

  • http://seanprice.net/blog Sean

    good list of plugins…i already run most of them, what i would like to see is a list of wordpress mu plugins for a site i run

  • http://techie-buzz.com Techie Buzz

    I too use almost all the plugins from the list. I will try out the Bad Behaviour and Duplicate content cure too.

    I have created a plugin called Better Tools Management that allows users to reply to comments from the admin screen itself.

    It also allows you to sort comments based on post.

    You can check on more info at Better comments manager

  • http://techie-buzz.com Techie Buzz

    I too use almost all the plugins from the list. I will try out the few of those which I am not using yet

    I have created a plugin called Better Tools Management that allows users to reply to comments from the admin screen itself.

    It also allows you to sort comments based on post. You can check on more info at site.

  • http://www.invloed.net rruben

    Thanks, good plugins

  • http://www.notbadbutgood.com dangross

    This incredibly useful for a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed newbie like me. Thanks for sharing the love!

  • http://bikhoda.wordpres.com ali jabbari

    not complete.

  • http://thejaan.com Jaan

    What about Adsense Injection? I believe it should definitely be on that list. Increases CTR by randomly injecting ads into posts.

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  • http://www.navagear.com Timothy Flanagan

    Wow! This is just what we need. Our site is enjoying good traffic, but it’s flattened out even as we make the content deeper and richer. I just know we could serve visitors better with some of these, particularly Related Posts and Popularity Contest. Thanks!

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  • http://freeforum.wordpress.com jared

    This is a total newbie question.

    Where is my plugin tab?

    Are these only for self hosted sites?

    I have a page hosted by WordPress.

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  • Shane

    good list

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    At last…
    *

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  • http://www.blogmunch.com Blogmunch

    I too have a blog hosted at wordpress.com…how do i install these great plugins?

    Thanks

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  • http://www.talktube.com Zach

    If you have a wordpress hosted blog you can not add plugins.

    Zach

  • http://www.manazoo.com T. Rockmann

    Thanks for this list, what a huge timesaver for helping us get our blogs up to speed. I especially like the WP-Contactform for helping us reduce SPAM.

    If anyone has a plugin for “Related articles” that would allow me to manually choose articles that go with a post, that would be a great help. I have found the automated ones to be less than accurate for my site.

    Thanks again,

    Terry
    http://www.manazoo.com

  • http://www.shanpyaebo.blogspot.com shanpyaebo

    Please surf my blog and advice me how to improve my blog.

  • http://www.jusupov.com Arstan

    Thanks for the great plugin list!

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  • http://apps.facebook.com/mirrorblog/ Mirror Blog

    Mirror Blog is an application that integrates your existing blog into facebook. It archieves that by mirroring your existing into your facebook account.
    Mirror Blog is a fully functioned blog writer. You can do blogging without leaving facebook.

    The Mirror Blog supports all blogs powered by WordPress, including blogs hosted on wordpress.com. The setup is easy and you don’t need to change anything on your blog host.

    Here is the Mirror Blog application URL:
    http://apps.facebook.com/mirrorblog/

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  • http://sanalmedia.blogspot.com/rss.xml Bayanlara Ozel Ne Varsa

    This plugin allows you to show off your most popular posts in the sidebar of your WordPress blogs.

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  • http://deansaliba.com Dean Saliba

    This is a great list I found a lot of new plugins now for my blog. :)

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  • http://www.swye.net Charles Forster

    Thank you so much for this list!
    I’m implimenting many of these on my blog which is still in its infancy.

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  • Sapan Bhatt

    hi..

    I am getting how to use the code. I have blogger’s blog and it wont allow me to add any .php thing in to its template. Again you said in the beginning that Worpress have these facility and you have given this codes for Blogger but I dont think any of the code is useful for Blogger. If yes let me know.

    Thanks,

  • http://www.hits-station.org manele

    Thank you so much for this list!

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  • Richard Schieck

    Hi Kim,

    I was just checking out your “top WordPress Plugins for the Smart Blogger” post and think they should all be very helpful.

    One question. Are you implementing any of the spam blocking ones? If so, which ones? They seem to not be working very well as I have noticed what appear to be commercially based comments.

    Such as, a number of comments with tags for “Penis Enlargement”, “Hair removal”, “Viagra” and many more similar type comments.

    I am going to assume that these are not the type of comments that you want to be displaying, but if I am wrong and you do, then please forgive me.

    I am just curious as to the spam blocking plugins you use. Maybe there is some incompatibilities when multiple ones are implemented.

    Please let me know at either my email address, [email protected], or in a reply to this comment.

    Thanks, Richard.

  • Emily

    Thank you for your list.

    One of my favourite plugin is DivvaFlip.

    DivvaFlip makes photos gallery more glamorous with a flipping engine

    Just try DivvaFlip, a page flipping engine, with a very easy
    backoffice in AJAX and working with WordPress 2.3 and 2.5 ! :-)

    Have a glance to the demo here http://www.divva-plugins.com/
    enjoy!

  • Padma Lakshmi

    Hey!…I Googled for books of india, but found your page about dpress Plugins for the Smart Blogger – Stepcase Lifehack…and have to say thanks. nice read.

  • http://www.caraccidentinsure.com mike

    thanks but the list is not complete.

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  • http://www.mashget.com Andrew

    Hi,

    I just write a new plugin WP Widget Cache, which can cache the output of your blog widgets. I think it will significantly reduce your server usage, especially when Google is crawling your site.

    Will you please have a try, and add it to this list. Thanks very much.

    Here’s the plugin url:
    http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-widget-cache/

  • http://www.forktrader.com/blog Catalin

    Thanks for plugin list.
    Very informative….i will add some on my blog.
    Regards

  • http://rockclimbersdream.ods.org jan

    thanks for plugins

  • http://www.weightlossproductz.com Acomplia

    I am glad to post my views and points in this blog, but I must say that webmaster of this blog has done a very great job to make his blog more informative and more discussable but unfortunately everything is same here that more than 80% in this and other blogs post their comments for making spam!!!, so i will really all this spam links to google band tool, because webmaster makes blogs for making discuss and for sloving each other problems.
    thanks

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  • James Rosenstein

    how about the webpurify profanity filter plugin?

    http://www.webpurify.com/profanity-filter/wp-plugin.php

  • http://blog.cnsqonline.com/ Cesar Noel

    I Think All-in-One SEO pack is much better than SEO title. I used Ultimate Tag Warrior before version 2.3 but It has conflicts when I upgraded to 2.5+

  • http://www.raycreationsindia.com/ Web Designer

    Thanks for the list of plugins. Akismet definitely deserves to be on the top of the list, but there has been instances when non spammers have also been blocked by them.

  • http://www.hostingitrust.com/ Web Hosting

    WordPress is a very good blogging platform whoever, it is advisable that you start your blog with your own domain name so that you can really call your blog yours. I hope you understand what I mean.

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  • http://hosting.ber-art.nl Berrie Pelser

    Very bice list, Thx!

  • http://www.epoxyindia.com/ Epoxy

    Great list, but using too many plugins could spoil the show.

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  • http://www.alexybecker.com/ Alex

    really nice post. i really liked the plugins u listed. some a pretty generic but some really good plugins here. i only use about 10 wp plugins, check em out.

  • http://www.smartlogix.co.in/ Namith

    How about this allrounder?

    Use wp-insert to insert every kind of code you will ever need to insert into your blog. The plugin features 5 ad widgets, provision to insert ads into right,left,top and bottom of your posts/pages, feed management options like adding your logo to your feeds, redirecting your feeds to feedburner, feedburner subscribe via email widget, Provisions to insert ads above or below your feeds, Subscribe to feed widget, Provision to insert google analytics code easily, Provision to add any kind of code to your header and footer area.

    Future plans include sections for SEO and social bookmarking..

    Download

  • http://www.onestopwebmasters.com Webmaster Tools

    Thanks for sharing these plugins

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  • http://shaunjudy.com shaunjudy

    These are some great plugins I use just about every one of them on my blog. They do pretty much everything they say they do.

  • http://rsfile.net jules popt

    is recesion time but we have to keep our heads up.good luck to everyone

  • http://www.virtualrosario.com Rosario

    This is a great list . Thanks

  • http://mobilewebjunkie.com Rich Gubby

    How about my plugin that allows you to mobilize your wordpress blog?

    It’s called the Wapple Architect Mobile Plugin for WordPress and once installed, means that every single mobile handset in the world can view your blog perfectly.

    Images are dynamically resized to fit the handset perfectly and URLs are retained as well as the all important SEO terms. You can also keep the look and feel of your site from web to mobile by uploading graphics and styling the mobile version!

    Version 1.4 is out now and the homepage can be found here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wapple-architect/

    Alternatively, if you search for “wapple” when adding a new plugin, it’s the only one that appears!

    It’d be great to hear what you think as I definitely think it’s worth a mention!

  • http://www.optigroove.com/local_seo_services_provider.html Local SEO Services

    Thanks for the plug ins. I am still looking for one to allow me to optimize the url. Thanks

    Optigroove

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  • http://www.3inchesup.com Jes Extender

    That is a great list! Thanks for sharing.

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    Hi guys, great post. Just wanted to know about the WP-contact form plugin. How does it work exactly? If I don’t receive the e-mail of the person who wants to contact me, where does the e-mail go?

  • http://www.corebloggers.com/blog/category/wordpress-plugins Nimit Kashyap

    The list is superb and i agree with them, very useful post.

  • http://yellownewst.ru/ Artem

    Спасибо за регулярные интересные статьи. Оч понравилось.

  • http://ss-mi-vmeste.ru Rengenx

    Красиво, но уже не актуально. В любом случае спасибо.

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  • http://www.promotional-buzz.com Marketing News

    Wonderful! thanks a lot for making life easier for me :)

  • http://www.technologiez.net neeli

    great collection of plug-ins can i them from here???

  • http://[email protected] iPad Application Development

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  • http://www.justmobilephone.com Aleza

    related post plugin is another beautiful pluging to show your visitors related data………….

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  • Gerard

    thanks for the list. i only use google adsense on my wordpress.

  • stevesmith

    Hi,
    This is pretty interesting site. I would like to say thanks to author for this great efforts.

    Raymeds.com

  • http://twitter.com/xoxodave David Boudreau

    nRelate has a great related post plugin for blogger and WordPress: http://nrelate.com/install/ – I use them on a number of websites and have had great results.

  • Anonymous

    Thanks for sharing this article! That is interesting and I am always searching for informative information like this…

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  • Alextady

    Really you have done great job,There are may
    person searching about that now they will find enough resources by your post.I
    like this blog.. 

  • Anonymous

    Haven’t seen a few of these, great stuff cheers!

  • http://www.websitebuilder4u.in/ website builder

    Really good collection thanks for sharing the same.
    I like WP Cache and i think is a must for blogger having high traffic wordpress blog.

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  • http://www.bangalorewebdesigncompany.com Vigneshsrk33

    very good collection of plugins for wordpress..

    i just bookmarked for my future use…